BOAT BITS
DID YOU KNOW THAT Seamen call ships ‘she’? Some say it’s because ships wear a coat of paint and swing around a buoy. Others say that it’s because a ship is ‘that other woman’ in a seaman’s life, one with whom he spends a lot of time and to whom he may grow deeply attached because they go through so much trial and tribulation together.
Added to this an old seaman would never call a ship a boat. He would say “ships carry boats” and leave you to work it out. In fact, strictly speaking, in the 19th century a ‘ship’ was a particular kind of sailing vessel and in the hey-day of sail there were many different kinds of craft. Small boys and seamen alike would recognise the difference immediately.
A sailing vessel was called a ‘Ship’ if it had 3 or more masts and there were yards on each mast for carrying square sails. Bert Brew’s last commands, ‘Wavertree’ and ‘Halewood’ were ‘ships’. However a very common sailing vessel in the days of George Menzies and his sons and sons-in-law was what was called a ‘Barque’. It had 3 masts but no yards on the last mast. In 1902 Bert Brew was Mate of one such called ‘Albuera’ which is pictured. Ernest Warner’s vessels ‘Wild Wave’ and ‘Island City’ and Tom Aubrey’s ‘Forfarshire’, ‘British Yeoman’ and ‘Battle Abbey’ were all barques.
If the vessel had 3 masts but only had yards on the foremast it was called a ‘Barkentine’. Tom Aubrey was 2nd mate in a barkentine called “Lindstol” in 1913. A vessel with only 2 masts and with yards on each was called a ‘Brig’. When George Menzies was first married he was mate of the Brig, ‘Rita’, sailing to New Zealand. If a vessel had 2 masts but only had yards on the foremast, it was called a ‘Brigantine’. A vessel with no yards (and no square sails) but only ‘fore and ‘aft’ sails was a ‘Schooner’
And then there were numerous variations eg if a schooner had yards on its foremast then it would be called a ‘topsail schooner’.
Vessels might have up to 5 or even 6 masts though more than 3 was rare. Most often there were only 3, the first was called the 'Foremast,' the second was always the 'Mainmast'and the third was called the 'Mizzenmast'. If a vessel had 4 masts then they were called Fore, Main, Mizzen and 'Spanker' mast because the latter always had a boom carrying a sail called a ‘spanker’. On vessels with 5 masts, they were called Fore, Main, Mizzen, the fourth was called the 'Jigger' mast and the last the 'Spanker' mast. If the vessel had 6 masts, the extra mast, the second last, might be called the ‘Driver’ mast and the last the Spanker mast.
To further complicate things a mast was usually made up of three individual masts, the lower mast the upper mast and the topgallant mast. This would lead to descriptions such as ‘the main togallant mast’ or ‘the fore lower mast’. If this wasn’t hard enough the young apprentice, and this included Ernest Warner, Bill Menzies and Tom Carson, had to know which sail was which. On masts with yards, there were commonly 5 sails; the lower one was called the 'Mainsail, the next above it, the 'Lower-Topsail', then the 'Upper-Topsail', then next above it the 'Lower-Topgallantsail' followed by the 'Upper-Topgallantsail'. Sometimes another sail called a 'Royalsail' was set above them all and on unusual occasions there might even be a 'Moonsail' or 'Skysail' on top. Each of these sails was fixed to its own yard which gave the yards their names eg ‘the main-upper-topsail-yard’. The young apprentice had to be able to distinguish between them all because he might be ordered to help the watch on the sheets of the fore-uppertop-sail or the main-lower topgallant-sail.
The right hand side of the ship going forward was called the ‘starboard’ side and the left, the ‘port’ side. Sometimes the side of the ship was also named with reference to the wind that was blowing. The side the wind was blowing on to was the ‘windward’ side and the other was called the ‘lee’ side. So the would be young officer might be ordered to help the men on the lee side of the mizzen royal yard. The right hand side of the bow was called the ‘starboard bow’. The rear of the vessel was called the stern but it was divided into two halves, the ‘port quarter’ and ‘the starboard quarter’. The front part of a vessel was referred to as 'forward', the middle part as 'midships' and the rear part as 'aft'. At sea when another vessel 'hove' in sight it might be referred to as 'on-the-port-bow' or 'a-beam' and when it had been passed it might described as 'astern and on the port quarter'.
Directions at sea were always defined by reference to the ship's compass. It was divided into 360 degrees right around its face. The helmsman might then be ordered to steer a course such as 045 degrees. The compass, of course, stood still because it was aligned to the earth's magnetic field and the ship 'swung' around it. The old tradition was to divide the compass into 32 parts called 'compass points' and each had a name. The main ones were of course North, East, South and West, each being equal to 8 points. The one halfway between North and East was called 'North-East' (4 points). The one half way between North and North-East was called 'Nor-Nor-East' (2 points). The one halfway between East and North-East was called East-nor-East (6 points). This meant that if the helmsman was ordered to steer a course of 4 points to starboard, he was steering the same course as 045 degrees. By deduction each point measured 11 1/4 degrees. One other complication for the young would-be officer was that before 1933, when Britain fell into line with other nations, in order to turn a vessel to port the steering wheel was turned to starboard. This sometimes caused great confusion when a pilot brought a foreign ship eg a Frenchman into a British port.
There were probably only 3 ‘ropes’ in a ship. The bell rope, the foot ropes along the yards for the men to stand on and the bolt ropes stitched around the edges of the sails. The rest had special names which helped to distinguish them. The lines which were used to haul the yards around were called ‘braces’. The lines used to haul the bottom corners of a square sail against the wind were called ‘sheets’. Those used to haul them forward were called ‘tacks’. The apprentice might then be ordered to help haul on the lee brace of the fore-topsail-yard. This of course could either be on the port side or the starboard side depending on which way the wind was blowing. In addition there were ‘bunt lines’ to haul the sails up to the yard before the crew went up to furl or tie them to the yards and there were ‘downhauls’ to pull the foot of the sail down again eg when getting ‘underway’.
There were strong lines, usually made of steel wire tying the top of the masts to the ship’s side. These were called ‘shrouds’. They had a slightly backwards force on the masts and to counteract this there were other strong wires called ‘stays’ set to pull the top of each mast forward to the base of the mast in front of it. In the case of the forestays, from the foremast, they were led forward to the ‘Bowsprit’ which projected forward over the bows. The lower, upper and topgallant masts were each fitted with shrouds and stays on both the fore, main and mizzen masts. In fair weather an apprentice might be told to help set a sail on the ‘Main-topmast-stay’.
The aspiring ship’s officer, like the rest of the crew, had to be able to find the correct line for the correct yard or sail without hesitation and in all weathers regardless of night or day, gale or storm, with cold seas sweeping inboard every time the ship rolled, sometimes swept off his feet, soaking wet and numbed to the bone. His life might depend on it.
